If you feel you have been subject to emotional distress or mistreated in your place of employment and would like to explore your employment law options, call us today at 203-221-3100, or email Joseph Maya, Esq. at JMaya@mayalaw.com.

Working in a nursing home can be stressful. But the job became even more so for an occupational therapist who reported alleged billing irregularities and was eventually terminated. Now a Superior Court judge has upheld a $100,000 jury award for negligent infliction for emotional distress, rejecting an argument from the nursing home’s owners that all terminations cause stress.

Julia Rice worked at Mystic Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, a southeastern Connecticut health care facility owned by the Sbriglio family. Rice had initially signed on at Greentree Manor, another facility owned by the same company, in 1999. But when an outside company was hired to manage the center in 2003, Rice quit to work for a competitor because of disagreements with the management company. Four years later, Kellie Kulick, a new administrator at Mystic Manor, reached out and offered Rice a position as an occupational therapist.

She assured Rice that things had changed and the two discussed Rice creating a new urinary continence program for patients, like the one Rice had been running at her current workplace. Rice said she was promised tuition reimbursement for graduate work, $40 an hour for per diem work and salary increases once her program was up and running. “She was repeatedly assured that it was the policy of the companies that she had a job as long as she satisfactorily performed her job, and Mr. Sbriglio confirmed that as the company policy,” according to court records. In 2008, Rice was upgraded from per diem status, signing a five-year contract that made her the facility’s highest-paid employee and also covered $10,000 in tuition costs.

According to the decision, Rice’s programs were so successful that more staff were hired and there was talk of implementing the program in other facilities. But in late 2009, Rice took issue with two other therapists who she claimed were double-billing patients; Rice said both therapists would work with a patient at the same time, and then both would bill the patient’s insurance. The dispute escalated to the point where Kulick had to intervene.

In March 2010, Rice was close to finishing her master’s degree. She reportedly reached out to competitors to learn what they were paying. Kulick reportedly learned about Rice’s activities and warned her about using a company computer for personal reasons. In turn, Rice again complained about her co-workers’ billing practices.

On April 22, 2010, Rice’s treatment records indicated that she spent 15 minutes working with a patient who had dementia. Later, that patient complained to Kulick that Rice had never spent that time with her. After an investigation, Rice was fired.

Rice alleged that the patient complaint wasn’t the real reason for her termination. She sued for breach of contract, wrongful discharge and negligent infliction of emotional distress. She is represented by Barry Ward of New Britain, who did not return calls seeking comment. Ryders Health Management, which is also owned by the Sbriglio family and provides management services to the centers, and Mystic Manor were represented by Michael LaVelle of Pullman & Comley. He also did not return a request for comment.

After a trial this past November, the jury awarded Rice $15,000 for lost wages and $100,000 for emotional distress. In a post trial motion, defense counsel argued that mere termination is not enough to sustain a negligent infliction of emotional distress claim because every termination causes stress. The defense said the plaintiff did not distinguish between the stress caused by loss of employment and the stress caused by her belief that the explanation she was given for termination was false.

Superior Court Judge Robert Vacchelli rejected the defense request to reduce or set aside the emotional distress verdict, saying there was evidence of stress beyond the fact of Rice’s termination. “She testified after events that she was devastated, in shock, numb, confused. She was in disbelief this happened,” Vacchelli wrote. “She testified that she was accused of fraud and that this was the worst thing that could happen in this line of work.”

As for the breach-of-contract count, Vacchelli also said the plaintiffs had provided ample evidence. “The jury was apparently persuaded by the plaintiff’s theme that the defendant … was deceitful in luring her away from her previous employer, and then causing employees to bring dubious charges against her to get rid of her once she had developed the programs Ryders wanted,” wrote Vacchelli

If you feel you have been mistreated by your employer or in your place of employment and would like to explore your employment law options, contact the experienced employment law attorneys today at 203-221-3100, or by email at JMaya@mayalaw.com. We have the experience and knowledge you need at this critical juncture. We serve clients in both New York and Connecticut including New Canaan, Bridgeport, White Plains, and Darien.

Source: CT Law Tribune